OIT News – February 2012

OIT News
Monthly news briefs, information and announcements
Office of Information Technology, NC State University
Issue 52, February 2012
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For up-to-the minute reports on OIT systems, see SysNews
For help with computing problems, contact the NC State Help Desk
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01: Financial System upgrade draws near, training available!
02: FOSS Fair 2012 kindles fire
03: Dial 7 plus 10 digits to make local calls!

04: Access research.gov with your NC State credentials
05: NC State Academic Google Calendar has new URL
06: Google Apps @ NC State Docs and mail and calendar training
07: SAR training scheduled for March 6
08: Security Apps for Facebook
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01: Financial System upgrade draws near, training available!
OIT will begin the Financial System upgrade from version 8.9 to 9.1 on Thursday, March 22 at 2 p.m. At that time, the Financial System (Production and Reporting) will be shut down. The WolfPack Reporting System, which provides many campus Financial Reports, will remain available until midnight, Friday, March 23. Both systems are expected to be available by 2 p.m. on Monday, March 26.    

Finance and Business offices have finalized the processing schedules and cut-off requirements for Financial transactions that must be completed prior to the upgrade. Please visit the Financial System Upgrade website for the listing of process schedules and cut-off requirements.

The Financial System provides financial management applications for accounting, budgeting, contracts and grants, and purchasing for the entire university. A joint project with Finance and Business, OIT and campus customers, the Financial System upgrade to version 9.1 will maintain vendor support from Oracle and offer efficiencies in processing and sharing of electronic attachments. In addition to electronic workflow improvements, the new Financial System will certify compatibility with more current browsers, desktop applications and operating systems and will include a new Asset Management module that will replace the outdated Capital Asset Management (CAMS) application. An updated Surplus Request System has been integrated with the Asset Management module, and a new Chartfield Request System will be implemented to eliminate paper request forms and improve efficiencies.

Financial System training – auditorium-style and hands-on training sessions (for select areas of improvement) – as well as online training materials is available for campus users. Please visit the Financial System Upgrade website for a list of training sessions and instructions on how to sign up for training.


02: FOSS Fair 2012 kindles fire

With the largest number of registered participants ever and a lineup of exciting sessions, the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) Fair 2012 promises to ignite participants’ interest in the latest free and open source software as well as build a community of open source software users.

The unconference-style event will be held on Saturday, Feb. 18 beginning at 9 a.m. in Room 3211 of Engineering Building 2 (EB2) on NC State’s Centennial Campus. Participants will also have a chance to win a Kindle Fire, a new media tablet that brings together Amazon’s cloud-based services, including movies, digital books and magazines, music, apps and games. You must be present to win all event prizes.

Co-sponsored by OIT Campus Linux Services and Red Hat, Inc., the FOSS Fair is completely driven by its participants, and any topic relating to free and open source software is welcome. You can suggest a session, volunteer to give a talk, and register for the event on the FOSS Fair 2012 website. To get more information about this year’s conference, contact Jack Neely, event coordinator, at linux@help.ncsu.edu or visit the FOSS Fair 2012 website.

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03: Dial 7 plus 10 digits to make local calls!
Beginning March 31, campus telephone users will have to dial 7, the area code and the seven-digit telephone number to make local calls. This change is due to the addition of a new area code – 984 – for the Triangle area.
 
An increase in the number of cell phones and other mobile devices had caused phone numbers in the “919” area code to be depleted. The new 984 area code will overlay the entire existing “919” area, and only new telephone numbers will be assigned the 984 area code. All campus telephone numbers beginning with the prefix 512, 513 or 515 will remain in the 919 area code. OIT ComTech has completed its testing of university telephone systems for compliance.
04: Access research.gov with your NC State credentials
NC State employees engaged in federally-funded research and scholarly endeavors can now access research.gov resources with their UnityID and password. Led by the National Science Foundation (NSF), research.gov improves customer service for the research community by increasing access to information and services while streamlining and standardizing business processes among partner agencies.OIT and the Office of Research and Innovation worked collaboratively on this project via the InCommon Federation, which enables its members to access password protected resources offered by other participating members. InCommon leverages Security Access Markup Language (SAML)-based authentication and authorization systems using Shibboleth to enable collaborations among its participants. Shibboleth allows the use of NC State’s authentication and identity attributes to access research.gov services, instead of the user having to create a new account and password on that site.

NC State researchers will find research.gov helpful in identifying funding opportunities, tracking the status of their funding applications, and monitoring federal policies and regulations governing their sponsored projects. To access the service, at research.gov, select InCommon from the “Login as” dropdown menu, select North Carolina State University from the “Log In” field, and then enter your UnityID and password when prompted.

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05: NC State Academic Google Calendar has new URL
As of Tuesday, Feb. 7, the NC State Academic Calendar in Google Apps @ NC State has a new Web address. The new URL is a result of a change in management from OIT to Registration and Records.

For more information or to subscribe to the calendar, see the NC State Academic Google Calendar website. If you are already subscribed to the calendar, you will see a notice to update its URL the next time you access it. This change is particularly important if you use the calendar within your Web applications or websites. The old Web address will no longer be valid after Feb. 21.

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06: Google Apps @ NC State Docs and mail and calendar training
OIT is conducting Google Apps @ NC State Docs and mail and calendar training throughout the month of February.
  • “Create and Collaborate with Google Docs” will be offered on Thursday, Feb. 16  and Tuesday, Feb. 21 from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. in Room 112 of the Avent Ferry Technology Center. Join Christopher Donald of the Office of Information Technology to learn how to create, import or build a collection of Google Docs (Web-based word processing documents). During this demonstration, you’ll also learn how to use Docs in a collaborative environment – simultaneously editing the same file/doc with your colleagues and friends – as well as get tips on how to secure your docs by implementing the proper file sharing permissions. For more information and to register, visit Classmate.

  • “Google Apps @ NC State mail and calendar training” will be offered on Friday, Feb. 17 from 9 a.m. to noon and on Wednesday, Feb. 29 from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Room 110 of the Avent Ferry Technology Center (OIT Training Labs). Chris King of the Office of Information Technology will cover everything you need to know to get started with Gmail and Google Calendar, including an overview of the apps and helpful resources. For more information and to register, visit Classmate.

Customized training on Google Apps at NC State is also available to groups of faculty and staff. Please submit training requests via the OIT Custom Training Form.

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07: SAR training scheduled for March 6
Monthly Security Access Request (SAR) training for campus requesters and approvers of access to secured university data has been suspended until March due to the Financial System 9.1 upgrade, which is slated for March 26. SAR provides the ability to request access to the Financial System.

The next SAR training session will be held on Tuesday, March 6 from 9:30 a.m. to noon in the ITTC Lab 2 of D.H. Hill Library. It will include requesting changes to the new Financial System.

Employees needing training prior to the Financial 9.1 upgrade should contact Beth Jones, OIT security administrator, at 513-1192 or via email at beth_jones@ncsu.edu. To view and sign up for upcoming training sessions, please visit Classmate.

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08: Security Apps for Facebook
More than 845 million people around the world interact via Facebook, a social networking service that allow people to connect by posting content. Did you know that there are security applications that you can add to your Facebook account to scan links, images and videos posted to your wall, messages and news feeds to make your interactions safer?

Delivered via the Websense global Security-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform, Defensio Facebook is one such application. It provides security and controls to manage what type of content can be posted to personal or commercial Facebook walls. It can send you an alert email if spam or a malicious link is detected in your account. The Norton Safe Web for Facebook application also scans your news feeds and identifies URLs containing security risks such as phishing sites, malicious downloads and links to unsafe external sites. Both applications are available for free and are accessible via the Facebook apps store.

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